Advance file photoRichmond University Medical Center in West Brighton.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Relief is in store for Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield policyholders: Richmond University Medical Center and the insurance carrier hammered out a last-minute deal and agreed on a new three-year contract today.

It is effective immediately — and comes two days after the contract was terminated following months of haggling over reimbursement rates for surgical procedures and hospital stays.

"RUMC successfully negotiated a payment rate from Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield that it considers equitable among hospitals in the metropolitan area," said Richard Murphy, president and CEO of the West Brighton hospital, in a statement.

"We are pleased that our two organizations could facilitate an agreement to avoid any inconvenience to the people of Staten Island."

The contract termination would have forced Empire policyholders — many of them city employees — to seek treatment elsewhere or to pay steep out-of-network costs to continue on as RUMC patients.

"There are no changes to the existing practices required by the patient or the physician office staff," Murphy’s statement continued. "A communication has been sent to all physician offices on Staten Island.

Murphy was unavailable for comment today.

He told the Advance yesterday that negotiations broke down because Empire’s payments "are among the lowest of any hospital in our area."

New rates hadn’t been negotiated since 2008 when RUMC became a stand-alone hospital, breaking away from the unstable St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers and a later affiliation with Bayonne Medical Center.

"The rates were so far behind at that point and we always knew once the contract was over, we were going to have to re-negotiate much higher rates," Murphy said yesterday.

RUMC, a 510-bed hospital, has an operating budget of $300 million, but has been unable to make structural and technological improvements because of low reimbursement rates from insurance providers, Murphy said.